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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23839351">Apprentice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:01:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>582</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23839351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Vader has a madman in custody who keeps calling him "Grandfather."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ben Solo | Kylo Ren/Darth Vader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous, May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Fanworks Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Apprentice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/gifts">Fairleigh</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The prisoner says, "You have to believe me."</p><p>Vader has been forced to be grateful for his suit and his helmet. Without them, he would have died, and his rage could not now be blasted like a flamethrower upon the galaxy at his master's bidding. He is often grateful that his figure looms over others, terrifying them with the dreadful promise behind the black mask and the respirator that turns his very voice into another weapon.</p><p>Now he is glad his helmet hides his expression from the madman locked in the cell.</p><p>"I must do nothing," Vader tells him, turning and striding away. The black suit has an imposing stride, and this too is a gift from his master, together with all his other gifts. Vader should be grateful for all of it, grateful too for the cold sanity Palpatine granted him when he could have burned with madness of his own, like the babbling prisoner.</p><p>The man had called him "Grandfather," had claimed to have traveled in time back to meet him. To join him. "Your children lived," he said. "My mother was raised on Alderaan by the Queen and her husband. Your son was raised on Tatooine by your brother."</p><p>All of these impossibilities pour from him still, sitting in his cell, speaking to the holocorder. Vader watches, pausing by the panel outside the cellblock. He turns off the feed, and with a vicious jab of fingers, enters his personal codes to delete the nonsense. Vader has no children. His only child died unborn. Kenobi's doing, he tells himself on the bad nights.</p><p>But there have been rumors. The pilot, the one who took the shot to destroy the Death Star, he had power in him unlike anything Vader has sensed in a long time. He dismisses the idea of the Organa girl. He'd have known. She'd been within his clutches, and he'd felt nothing. But what if Kenobi had gotten to her, too, and hidden her powers away somehow?</p><p>Thoughts churn inside his head. He ignores them, pushing them away, only for them to pop back up like a balloon toy.</p><p>After hours, he returns to the cellblock, and stands in front of the man's cell. He's dark-haired and wild-eyed, scarred and crackling with power. Vader sees nothing of himself in his face. "Which of them spawned you?"</p><p>"Your daughter. She denied the truth of you for years, but I've felt you inside my soul since I was a boy." His gaze shines with adoration. "I've longed to meet you."</p><p>Mad, and possibly dangerous, but not without use. Vader has never made a play to replace his master. It is the way of the Sith, but Vader has not that ambition, nor has he found an appropriate apprentice. He drops the force field holding the man hostage. "Come forward."</p><p>He does, dropping to his knees in front of Vader and bowing his head. He's strangely entrancing like this, fawning and submissive, his face full of love. Vader barely remembers what it is like for someone to look at him that way, and it moves something dark and pleasant inside his belly. He doesn't believe the man's story, but perhaps that does not matter. He is a powerful, willing, malleable tool, and Vader's mind is already considering many uses for him, not all of them against the Emperor.</p><p>Vader places his hand on the man's bowed head, and feels the tremble go up his arm. "Let us begin," he says.</p>
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